Baking quick questions

vanoonoo

love the sounds of stephen leaks's pud above but would prob go for fondue stylee meself if I could eat chocolate *pout*

cutestkids

Mississippi Mud pie is my favourite chocolate dessert

zippychick

As you have made your desert ive merged this with baking quick questions

I probably would have went with some sort of chocolate cheesecake. (mint aero?) If you search the forum "chocolate" as the keyword, you will see loads of ideas for future

Zip

kitty_kat27

Dinah93 wrote: »

Afraid I don't have the book, but I did find a copy on amazon for under £2. Even if it's a different cover it's probably just a reprint with the same recipes inside. x

Thank you
:j

rosie383

My chocolate cake has gone dry!!

I make a chocolate cake for a charity every week. It has always been lovely and moist and works well every time.
The last few weeks, however, it seems to be dry and a bit firm around the edges by the time it has baked.
The only thing that I am doing differently is using ready made cake tin liners. Usually I just lined the tin with greaseproof paper.
Could this be what is doing it? I am using exactly the same recipe, temp, tin etc.
Once I have filled it with buttercream and covered it with ganache, no-one seems to notice much difference and people still love it, but it's really annoying me!
HELP PLEASE!

nuatha

rosie383 wrote: »

My chocolate cake has gone dry!!

I make a chocolate cake for a charity every week. It has always been lovely and moist and works well every time.
The last few weeks, however, it seems to be dry and a bit firm around the edges by the time it has baked.
The only thing that I am doing differently is using ready made cake tin liners. Usually I just lined the tin with greaseproof paper.
Could this be what is doing it? I am using exactly the same recipe, temp, tin etc.
Once I have filled it with buttercream and covered it with ganache, no-one seems to notice much difference and people still love it, but it's really annoying me!
HELP PLEASE!

It could be the cake liners, it could also be a coincidence and be your oven thermostat.
I'd make a cake as you used to, to check, assuming it comes out as it used to, then its the cake liners. You could try reducing the cooking time by 5 mins or reducing the oven temperature by 10 degrees (you may need to do both - can I volunteer for quality testing:))
HTH

rosie383

Thanks Nuatha. I did try reducing the temp and it took ages to bake. Turned out very slightly moister.
I have tested them with skewers and set the timer for just an extra 5 mins after the skewer coming out with cake mix on it, so I don't think I overbaked them too much.
The thermostat in the oven was changed just a matter of months ago, so I doubt if it's that.
I make 2 layers each time, so I think next week, I might try doing one with the liner and one with greaseproof paper. Just had a thought........ I have been using cheap muffin cases from the same shop too and they are turning out very dry round the bottom by the time the centre is done. So maybe that's the culprit. Odd though.

Lifeforms

Baking a Gluten free Wheat free Victoria typed sponge/cake.
bog standard recipe.
Self Raising gluten/wheat free flour, caster sugar, van ess, egg, milk, and baking powder.
But assuming I stick to noted quantities, I end up with quite a short cake. Doesn't seem to "rise". The taste of it is fine, quite nice for a Gluten/Wheat free cake, nice and light and moist. Is it just a hazard of doing G/WF baking?

Had done a "dry run" with quite old flour and baking powder, so today have bought some more that's not about 3 years outta date... But the next run will be the proper run. To get it to a decent height I'm thinking 3 cake layers, but wondered if it were a natural problem with G/WF flour/baking, then is there something that could be used to improve the rise?

Gotta bake one G/WF and one normal. only have the G/WF recipe, so was just gunna use same quantities to make a normal cake, then fill with jam and cream, both of which I just remembered I forgot to buy today. Top with chocolate, and then obscenely decorate with far too much cakey topping bits for amusement

miss_independent

It may not be of much help to you but I read somewhere that you should add two teaspoons of (GF) baking powder to every cup of (GF) flour. So maybe experiment with adding a little more baking powder than your recipe suggests. I find the doves farm GF self raising flour rises ok.

Lifeforms

miss_independent wrote: »

It may not be of much help to you but I read somewhere that you should add two teaspoons of (GF) baking powder to every cup of (GF) flour. So maybe experiment with adding a little more baking powder than your recipe suggests. I find the doves farm GF self raising flour rises ok.

The older one was asdas own, I have just bought the Doves, I do have enough to try another go, and it was a reasonably quick cook. This recipe made a more of a batter than I was expecting, but did warn if it was sloppy not to add more flour. I might risk it again with another one but use more baking powder. Just got ripped off by the sachets, instead of a tub (that I used to buy) so only have 6 (teaspoons worth)